Magic Resist in League of Legends

Magic Resistance (MR) in League of Legends is a defensive stat that reduces the amount of incoming magic damage.

Every champion has a base MR that typically increases with levels. MR can be further enhanced through items, runes, abilities, and buffs.

MR functions similarly to Armor but specifically counters magic damage rather than physical damage. It plays a crucial role in building a champion's effective health against magic damage.

How Does Magic Resistance work?

Magic Resistance reduces incoming magic damage by a percentage. The formula for calculating post-mitigation magic damage is:

What is Magic Penetration and Types of It

Magic Penetration in League of Legends is a stat that allows a champion to bypass a portion of an enemy's Magic Resistance (MR), effectively dealing more damage with magic-based attacks and abilities. Magic Penetration is crucial for champions who rely heavily on magic damage, as it helps maximize their damage output against targets with high MR.

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There are two main types of Magic Penetration: flat and percentage.

Flat Magic Penetration

Flat Magic Penetration reduces the target's MR by a set amount, directly subtracting a fixed value from the enemy's MR. This type of penetration is effective against enemies with low to moderate MR.

Example:

• If a champion has 15 flat Magic Penetration and the target has 30 MR, the target's effective MR is reduced to 15 (30 - 15 = 15).

Flat Magic Penetration is usually provided by items such as Sorcerer's Shoes and Shadowflame.

Percentage Magic Penetration

Percentage Magic Penetration reduces the target's MR by a percentage, effectively scaling with the amount of MR the target has. This type of penetration is particularly effective against targets with high MR.

Example:

• If a champion has 40% Magic Penetration and the target has 100 MR, the target's effective MR is reduced to 60 (100 * 0.6 = 60).

Percentage Magic Penetration is commonly found on items like Void Staff and Blighting Jewel.

Combining Magic Penetration Types

Magic Penetration types stack multiplicatively, meaning both flat and percentage penetration can be applied to the same target. The order of calculations ensures that percentage reductions and penetrations are applied before flat reductions.

Example:

• Target has 80 MR.
• 20 Flat MR Reduction.
• 30% MR Reduction.
• 35% Magic Penetration.
• 10 Flat Magic Penetration.

Calculation steps:

1. Flat MR Reduction: 80 - 20 = 60 MR.
2. Percentage MR Reduction: 60 * 0.7 = 42 MR.
3. Percentage Magic Penetration: 42 * 0.65 = 27.3 MR.
4. Flat Magic Penetration: 27.3 - 10 = 17.3 MR.

The target takes damage as if they have 17.3 MR.

Stacking Magic Resist

Each point of magic resist increases the effective health pool against magic damage by 1%.

For example, a unit with 60 magic resistance has 160% of its maximum health as effective health. So, if the unit has 1000 maximum health, it will take 1600 magic damage to kill it.

Magic resist does not provide diminishing returns in terms of effective health. Each additional point of magic resist increases the effective health pool by 1% of your maximum health, regardless of how much magic resist is already held.

In cases where a unit's magic resist is negative due to reduction debuffs, magic resist has increasing returns with respect to itself. Negative magic resist cannot reduce effective health to less than 50% of actual health. For instance, a unit with -100 magic resist has 66.67% of its nominal health as effective health, meaning it gains −33.33% of its maximum health as effective health. This scenario is almost impossible to have in the game and is purely theoretical.

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When Should You Build HP and When MR

Understanding when to build health (HP) and when to build magic resist (MR) is essential for maximizing your champion's survivability. The equilibrium between maximum health and magic resist is represented by the equation:

$$ health=6.75×(magic resist+100) $$

This equilibrium line indicates the point at which your champion will have the highest effective health against magic damage. For armor, the line is slightly steeper:

$$ health=7.5×(armor+100) $$

In the early game, health is often the most gold-efficient purchase, assuming the enemy team primarily deals one type of damage. As the distribution of physical and magic damage becomes more balanced, buying health becomes more effective.

Several factors influence whether you should prioritize MR or HP:

1. Healing Effectiveness: Increasing MR makes healing more effective because it requires more effort for enemies to reduce your HP.
2. Damage Types: HP helps you survive both magic and physical damage. Against teams with burst or low sustained damage, HP can be more efficient than resistances.
3. Magic Resist Reduction: Percentage magic resist reduction from the enemy team can tilt the optimal healthratio in favor of HP.
4. True Damage and Percent Health Damage: Enemies capable of dealing true damage or percent health damage reduce the value of stacking MR or HP.
5. Champion Kit: The presence of resist or HP steroids in your champion's kit, such as Leona's Eclipse or Cho'Gath's Feast, can influence your itemization strategy.
6. Sustained Damage and Healing: Against sustained damage, vamp and healing abilities contribute to your maximum HP, while being mostly irrelevant against burst damage.
7. Item Prioritization: Sometimes, specific items are prioritized for their other qualities, regardless of whether they contribute towards the ideal balance between HP and resists.

Base Magic Resist values